Monthly Archives: January 2011

First up is Henrietta Samuels from Samuelstype. Like the aforementioned FF Mister K, Henrietta Samuels is full of extra ligatures and stylistic alternatives to help avoid identical forms of a single character, or combination thereof. (Notice the differing ‘ra’ ligatures above.) There’s a certain quirky, imperfect decadence to the typeface that makes it unique. Exclusive to FontShop.

Reservation Wide, designed by Silas Dilworth of the TypeTrust, is an extended neo-grotesque face intended for headlines. Dilworth originally designed Reservation Wide for the Food Network, which uses the typeface (originally named Majestos) on its website and in on-air promos. Its terminals have a slight angle, keeping it open and approachable—one might even say appetizing. As an avid Food Network watcher, it has a place near and dear to my stomach.

Peter Mendelsund has designed a gorgeous new set of book jackets for the works of Franz Kafka. Scheduled to begin their release cycle in June or July through Alfred A. Knopf, the minimal and striking jackets feature three consistent components: the eye motif, bright color, and the type. Mendelsund made great use of FF Mister K by Julia Sysmäläinen, a design based on the handwritten manuscripts of Kafka.

FF Mister K is an expansive script. A single weight of FF Mister K Pro contains 1,509 total glyphs, including hundreds of ligatures (some combine up to four characters) and contextual and stylistic alternate glyphs. Accompanying the set of scripts is FF Mister K Dingbats, adding 1,345 symbols that range from flags to cityscapes to electronic devices. (No, Franz Kafka did not scribble the first iPod in his manuscripts—Sysmäläinen took a bit of creative leeway with these symbols to optimize them for modern usage.)

The wildly popular typeface Museo by exljbris recently welcomed a new member to its family: Museo Italics. The other upright members of the family, Museo Sans and Museo Slab, also have italic kin. This latest addition completes the family.

“Helped by a panel of expert advisors that included graphic design critics, designers, and historians, we based our decisions on the same criteria—ranging from aesthetics to historical relevancy, from functionality to social significance, from technological ingenuity to economy—that we use when evaluating objects. We paid particular attention to the synthesis of goals, means, and elegance that we always seek in modern design.”

Next in our series of cool font specimen PDF callouts comes FF Bau. Designed by Christian Schwartz in 2002, FF Bau is based on Schelter & Giesecke’s Grotesk, an early ancestor of Helvetica. In the most recent Fontfont update, FF Bau was rereleased in the following versions:

FontFont has posted a very cool “Stylistic Set Pocket Guide”, detailing the new OpenType features in FF Bau OT. Among them are a number of alternate glyphs, figure variants, and Central European language support (in the Pro versions). You can also read more about FF Bau, and the rest of the FontFont 54 release, over at FontShop Benelux’s Unzipped.

Included in FontFont Release #54 is the newly revised FF Fontesque Display. This new OpenType feature-laden version of FF Fontesque includes alternate glyphs for nearly every character in the typeface, including Central European characters (found in the Pro version). Designer Nick Shinn has also released a user guide/specimen PDF, detailing the family’s specifics.

As 2011 gets rolling, we’re happy to announce the launch of a new FontShop blog.

Here’s a rundown of the FontShop family of newsletters, blogs, and Twitter accounts — all of which you should consider following in the new year.

The FontShop Newsletter
Still going strong after six years, the bi-weekly FontShop email newsletter is the best way to stay up-to-date on new font releases, FontFont updates, and industry news.

The FontShop Blog
Written by the San Francisco team, we’ll spotlight new website features, common support issues, and other operational miscellany. Additionally, we’ll showcase longer articles and extended type samples which don’t fit neatly in our newsletter format.

The FontFeed
Need some typographic inspiration? The FontFeed is for you. Published by Yves Peters and a motley crew of typomaniacs from various locales in Europe, the FontFeed is a great way to see how type is being used today.

FontShop starts its new year with the 54th release update from FontFont. Check out our extensive release notes in this PDF, including new FontFont designs FF Basic Gothic, FF Massive, and a new batch of Web Fonts.

With its 2010 release the FF Massive OT family was expanded with an extra outline version into eight different Open Type fonts, divided in four variations which together form a versatile typographic system. The eight different FF Massive variations enable the user to compose a number of combinations, which can lead to surprising results, especially with the use of contrasting colours.

This manual will explain how the FF Massive type system is best employed. Enjoy!